Did you see where Dwight Howardmade history earlier this week when he scored 32 points and pulled down 30 rebounds to become only the second player in the last 36 years to have a 30-30 game in the NBA?

I hate to keep piling on former Magic GM Rob Hennigan (actually, that’s a lie!), but can we just go ahead and put NOT bringing back Dwight onto the laundry list of bungled moves during the five lost years of the Hennigan era, er, error?

If you’ll recall, Dwight signed a reported 3-year $70 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks two years ago before the rebuilding Hawks ended up trading him to the Hornets after last season. But Dwight hinted he actually wanted to return to Orlando when he signed that deal.

After Hennigan was fired after last season, somebody tweeted to Dwight, “Now that Orlando’s front office is gone, can you tell us if you were close to coming back last offseason?”

Dwight’s response: “It wasn’t close, but I did ask.”

So instead of signing Dwight — still one of the best centers in the league — to a 3-year $70 million deal; Hennigan signed backup center Bismack Biyomboto a four-year $68 million deal.

Not saying Dwight would have made the Magic champions or even got them into the playoffs, but his return would have at least made them more watchable.

And you know my mantra: If you’re going to be bad, at least be interesting.

SHORT STUFF: Speaking of Dwight, shame on my Sentinel colleague George Diaz for not putting Howard on his Magic Mount Rushmore earlier this week when he wrote an otherwise engaging column about TracyMcGrady’s induction into the Magic Hall of Fame. Diaz listed Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson and T-Mac on Mount Magic, but omitted Dwight — the greatest player in team history. Dwight is the franchise leader in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots and also was the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who almost singlehandedly led the franchise to its greatest season (2009 NBA Finals). Leaving Dwight off Mount Magic is like leaving Abe Lincoln off the real Mount Rushmore. …

Can you believe FSU coach Leonard Hamilton has the ninth-seeded Seminoles one victory away from the Final Four? “Hamilton” may be a great Broadway play, but Leonard’s off-Broadway version is pretty doggone good, too! … Earlier this week was the 12-year anniversary of the first Tweet ever written. Question: Should we have celebrated the occasion or mourned it? … Speaking of anniversaries, I saw where it was 60 years ago this week that Elvis was drafted into the military. Remember the old Elvis song “Return to Sender”? That’s what would happen if an entertainer or athlete today got a draft notice. …

Any regular reader of this column knows I’ve been very critical of ESPN analysts Paul Finebaum and Kirk Herbstreit for the dismissive way they talk about UCF’s self-proclaimed national title and AD DannyWhite’s assault on the current College Football Playoff system. Earlier this week, Finebaum tweeted at me, “Hey, Mike, give it a rest.” And I tweeted back, “Hey, Paul, I will give it a rest as soon as media heavyweights like yourself and Herbstreit — guys who have a real forum to invoke change — start calling out the inequitable CFB system instead denigrating UCF for doing what you should be doing.” …

Now that the Miami Dolphins have acquired Frank Gore and the Tampa Bay Bucs have acquired Jason Pierre-Paul, it’s quite clear these two teams are now legitimate contenders for the Super Bowl — the 2012 Super Bowl! … The Jacksonville Jaguars dumped their longest-tenured player — tight end Marcedes Lewis — after 12 seasons earlier this week. Sadly, this is just what happens when your Marcedes gets too many miles on it! … Free-agent safety Eric Reid, who believes he has remained unsigned because he has been one of the most adamant national-anthem protesters over the last two seasons, now says he is not planning to kneel during The Star-Spangled Banner this season. Moral of the story: Making a living takes precedent over making a statement. … UCF punter Mac Loudermilk told the Sentinel’s Shannon Green that the Knights have a chance to run the table again this season. Since Loudermilk might be the only punter in the nation who serves as the team siren, let’s just call him “Mac the Fife.” …

LAST WORD: Now that Penny Hardaway has been hired as the new coach at the University of Memphis, can we safely say that former Memphis coach Tubby Smith joins ex-Magic coach Brian Hill on the list of those who Penny got fired?

Open Mike

Don't forget, you can click on OrlandoSentinel.com and read the wildly popular Open Mike blog and interactive extravaganza to get my freshest takes on what's happening in the world of sports. Here's a blog about UCF athletics director Danny White:

UCF athletics director Danny White has responded to critics like ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit who continue to denigrate UCF’s self-proclaimed national championship nearly three months after the undefeated Knights beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl.

Herbstreit went on Twitter a few days ago and felt the need to chastise White’s self-proclamation of a national championship.

Tweeted Herbstreit: “Just enjoy a magical-incredible year. You’re damaging your own brand by jumping up and down ‘claiming’ a National Championship. Just stop. Your ‘National Champions’ in your own world. And that’s awesome. But the rest of us crowned Bama the champ January 8th.”

White, like most of us, found it laughable that Herbstreit actually had the audacity to say that the national-championship narrative has hurt UCF’s brand.

“You know, I was listening to some of our players’ post-practice interviews during the first couple of days of spring ball and I keep hearing them say we’re ready to move on and focus on 2018,” White said on our Open Mike radio show on FM 96.9 and AM 740. “I feel the same way. I’m trying to focus on season-ticket sales for 2018 and everything else we’re doing, but people like that [Herbstreit] keep bringing it up and we’re certainly going to respond when they say things that aren’t true. Obviously, it’s not hurting our brand. It’s building our brand pretty quickly across the country. UCF has become a household brand just like TCU and USC and we’re going to keep building on that.”

As I wrote in an earlier column, UCF’s brand was nearly non-existent before the perfect season and the national-championship narrative. Guys like Herbstreit and Paul Finebaum would never even have mentioned the Knights if not for the debate and discussion created by White.

As I wrote, here’s all you need to know about how much publicity and exposure White has created in building UCF’s brand.

• Exhibit A: Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne took a Twitter jab at UCF’s national-championship claims just the other day after the Knights lost to the Crimson Tide in the WNIT. What’s it tell you when little ol’ UCF is still getting under the skin of big, bad Alabama nearly three months after the Peach Bowl?

• Exhibit B: Mo Vaughn, the great former slugger of the Boston Red Sox, was in our radio studio earlier this week promoting his new big-and-tall clothing line. One of the first things he said to me when I met him was, “How about those national-champion UCF Knights?”

• Exhibit C: UCF commissioned a report released a few days ago that found the undefeated season and national-championship discussion was worth more than $200 million in equivalent advertising exposure.

With all due respect to Herbstreit, this national-championship narrative isn’t “damaging” UCF’s brand; it’s perpetuating and augmenting UCF’s brand!

“What our team and our kids did on the field has given our athletic department this platform to not only build the UCF brand but to prove a really good point and to tell a story that needs to be told,” White said. “It’s a flawed system. It’s the only sport in America where the eventual champion is not settled on the field. If you go undefeated and beat quality teams, how can you not be in the playoff? The playoff clearly needs expansion to really be a true playoff and we’ve been given this microphone to tell that story and it’s been fun telling it. But, more importantly, I hope we’ve done something to advocate for some real change.”

Mail bonding

Most interesting reader e-mails, radio rabble, tangy tweets and message-board mockery from the week in sports:

• On the Orlando Magic: “They are doing exactly what they are supposed to do — lose! Tank you very much!!!”

• On FSU coach Leonard Hamilton taking his team to the Elite 8: “The 16-year rebuild is finally complete!”

• On NBA coaches dealing with stress and pressure: “Real pressure is knowing that if you lose your job, it'll be hard to put food on your family's table and keep your power on.”

Notable quotables

Three of my favorite sports-related quotes from the late-night talk shows:

• “Golfer Rory McIlroysaid [at The Arnie] there should be a limit to how much alcohol fans can buy at events because they’re getting too rowdy. And also, he’s tired of hearing drunk people try to say “Rory McIlroy.” — Jimmy Fallon

• “The big story is still March Madness. The tournament has been crazy so far. The other night, a 16th-seed beat a No. 1-seed for the first time ever when UMBC beat Virginia. It’s pretty nuts — until last weekend, everyone thought UMBC was a bank.” — Conan O’Brien